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Urban Areas and Infrastructure

The majority of the world population lives in urban areas and the impacts of climate change come in various forms - increased incidence of heat waves, water shortages, storm surges, and floods affecting urban infrastructure and peoples’ livelihood.

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This e-learning course discusses how cities and urban regions can lead climate actions and mainstream climate mitigation and adaptation into their development plans. Its overall objective is to encourage city leaders and decision makers to undertake climate actions suitable to local needs. Specifically, the course will provide practical knowledge and skills to:

integrate appropriate climate actions into city-wide agendas;

apply proven tools and methodologies to identify the best course of climate action planning;

facilitate collaboration with different stakeholders and partners in planning and implementing climate actions; and

utilize policy, financial and technical instruments available within and outside administrative boundaries in designing and implementing timely climate actions.

This course is unique in that it covers all aspects of climate action by cities, including both adaptation and mitigation planning, at every stage—from surveying and visioning to strategic planning and implementation. Each lesson includes multimedia and interactive learning elements, and links to some of the most helpful documents, websites, city networks and international sources of expertise. Optional video clips are offered throughout, providing opportunities to learn directly from experienced city officials and world class experts.

Target Audience: City councilors, committee members, senior and mid-level planners and development officers, advisors, and anyone in a position to influence urban development.

“No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it.”― Peter F. Drucker"

THIS COURSE IS FOR YOU!

Professionals or technical staff involved in training programmes and workshops in projects and organisations. Teachers or staff members at a (higher) education institutions or training centres evolving towards a more student-centered learning style.

WHAT THIS COURSE IS ABOUTTraining” takes people off the job, with the aim that they will be more effective upon their return. To cash in the results, you need to set clear learning objectives, transfer both skills and conviction, and ensure that the learners return to an environment that supports new behaviour. If approached from this holistic perspective, training can be a powerful tool to boost the performance of your team, organisation or project. Training needs to be carefully designed and delivered in order to be really effective. Training sessions need to be engaging, relevant, practical and structured to achieve long-term assimilation of learning and sustained behaviour change.

The Asia Pacific Adaptation Network (APAN) and ICLEI Southeast Asia cooperate to address CCA-related issues in the region, as well as building the capacity of the countries in crafting their CCA initiatives. Within this context, APAN through ICLEI-SEAS – sub-regional node in Southeast Asia, and other partners, will organise a three-day sub-regional conference on “Towards Climate Change Resilience: Integrating Urban Biodiversity with CCA” in Chiang Rai on 18-20 December 2013, with study tours to better create a knowledge mobilisation venue for participants advocating for climate resilient habitats and conserving biodiversity. This conference aim to facilitate discussion and information dissemination on CCA, resilience and urban biodiversity, share lessons learned and best practices on the topic, and create the understanding of integrating urban biodiversity to the climate action plans as an emerging issue, specifically at the sub-national and local societal adaptation strategies.

Objectives

The three-day event aims to:

Realise the importance of urban biodiversity as an emerging and critical issue in SEA in response to resilience building and the policies and frameworks within the context of CCA

Exchange knowledge and best practices on CCA and urban biodiversity related issues in SEA

Bring together country climate change focal points, policy makers, and experts to share and discuss knowledge on CCA and urban biodiversity in SEA

Create the understanding of integrating urban biodiversity to the climate action plans as an emerging issue in response to the increasing vulnerability of urban systems

Highlight the way forward to deal with national level and societal adaptation strategies and reflect on the lessons learned from the APAN-ICLEI activities.

Key Questions: Detailed in the presentation guidelines document

Expected Results

The expected results of the three-day event include:

Increased level of awareness on the importance of CCA in sustaining urban biodiversity

Exchanged knowledge on CCA and urban biodiversity related issues

Gained a deeper understanding and appreciation of the role of national and local governments in building climate resilience societies.

Developed understanding on the importance of local efforts in integrating urban biodiversity issues to CCA

Learned from the experiences of local governments’ initiatives on CCA

Determined the areas for improvement in linking CCA with urban resilience and sustainable development

Expected Outcomes

At the end of the three-day event, the participants will have:

Utilised knowledge on the linkage of urban biodiversity and CCA

Integrated lessons learned into future plans and policies in both local and regional levels

Responded to the challenges in dealing with climate change and resilience